In anticipation of this October’s release of the newest iteration of their acclaimed basketball simulation series, NBA 2K10, 2K Sports has announced NBA 2K10: Draft Combine.

The Draft Combine will be available via download from the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live in September, and will allow players to create a custom character and test his skills in the NBA Draft Combine, held in Chicago.  Here’s a list of the features included.

Building custom players by working with a mentor, the 2K Insider, and increasing their NBA stock through a variety of challenging basketball drills and 5-on-5 games.

    Over 300 different signature customizations, including player-specific shooting animations, dunk and dribble packages and more to allow each created player to have his own unique personal style.

    Ability to strengthen all parts of the created player's game with a variety of drills, such as shooting, post offense and defense, attacking the basket, dribbling, challenging shots, boxing out for rebounds and more to progress through the NBA Draft Combine.

    Organized games that will allow players to gain valuable skill points and offer a variety of specific in-game objectives that will need to be accomplished in order to gain them. At the end of each game, a full analysis will be available for gamers to review their player's performance and strategize their further improvement.

    All players created in NBA 2K10: Draft Combine will wear a special patch on their uniform throughout the rest of that player's career to denote that they have completed the NBA Draft Combine.

    Online leaderboards to track the highest ranking custom built players, and where a player stacks up against the competition.

    Opportunity to unlock special achievements on Xbox 360 and trophies for PLAYSTATION 3 system.

    Fans can take their custom built players from NBA 2K10: Draft Combine and use them in the all-new My Player career mode in NBA 2K10 launching this fall, allowing them to continue their journey of becoming an NBA legend.

Much like the Teambuilder technology developed for NCAA Football 10, this Draft Combine is a great way to get people excited about the game before it arrives.  It’s something I would totally get into…if it was free.  But it’s not.  Instead, you’ll pay $5 to play a one-player practice mode.

This is the kind of subtle shift in game marketing that gamers need to pay attention to.  A year ago, this would have absolutely been a free download, but companies are starting to get more and more adventurous with what they think we’ll pay for.  Personally, I think that everyone should resist paying for the download; the more we agree to pay for, the more they’ll start adding price tags to.  If consumers don’t start drawing lines in the sand for stuff like this, we’ll soon be paying for demos and trailers, and from there it’s just a snowball’s roll to companies intentionally releasing incomplete games and expecting us to pay extra to get “the full experience.”